[top-politics] What does TOP mean to you?

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you?

Magnus — 2006-07-03 16:44:00+0200

-Hello, I’m back again after a terrible computer crash just when we where to produce a 1 minute promotion video to be sent in Swedish television before the elections this fall…
But now we are done and I can contiue with this important international project…:-)

“There is an obvious need, especially in the early stages, for non-public discussions or consultations among colleagues working on a public issue, matter or project. Perhaps, once when the official papers are finalized and presented to the appropriate authority for consideration and eventual approval, the whole process should be open and public with sufficient media coverage including the internet. "

-My comment here is that we in AD see these things very strict and that such informal consultations could be very harmful to the later stages since what’s concluded and decided in such closed halls could put a totally wrong agenda when it comes to public opinion and participation. Shortly spoken: The privilegue of problem formulae should not be kept by the inner circles.

Ofcourse none can stop informal contacts but the goal and the only formal way when to make important decisions should be fully transparent.
Think of it, what dicussions and decisions can not be held public as long as we don’t speak about nation security? (which we also could discuss since I’m a fan of the one and only worthy american president, pres. Wilson who promoted Point 1 in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points ,the total open diplomacy ,in a then very non-mature environment)

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

illegale — 2006-07-10 16:49:42+0200

> While we are still waiting for Markus and echarp to say what TOP means to them, let us start preparing a list of the elements or ‘aspects’ of TOP from the responses so far we have received that would be incorporated into our group definition of TOP so that we may be in a position to vote on each of them when the list is finalized. > > The ‘aspects’ or elements so far articulated are: > > A1 TOP is the acronym for Transparent, Open and Public in reference to the governance of the country or in the conduct of public business. What is open and public in governance will make it transparent as well.

Running issues by example is the best way to promote it. So, if we want to be powerfull citizens, we have to show governance how can it be done. That is the reason I look into promotion of new mechanism of generation of the power that can lead process before goverment in this very time also.

Read more… / Lire plus…

> A2 TOP clearly does not apply to private exchanges on private matters among the public employees or on public matters among ordinary citizens.

OK. This is a matter of organisations. Do they want to be TOP or not. Every single one of course. As long as I believe that democracy is in itc core idea of global citizan political engagement and as long as we take part of this big body by being a legitimated part of the process, it is aplied to every singe one who is participating in politics of any kind.

> A3 All important decisions must be fully transparent. The whole process should be open and public with sufficient media coverage including the internet. At this point of time, public participation should be welcome and encouraged wherever practical, especially online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and with elected or appointed discussion leaders.

Why only important? This can only put some confusion into what is important and what is not important? So, why not all?

> A4 There shall be no prohibition of public employees from having private discussion on any public matter.

OK.

> A5 Apart from the discussion process, the discussion minutes and other documents and records should be available online to anyone who wants access to them, especially those who are participating or interested in the discussions.

OK.
ATB,
Gale

> Best Regards > Eric Lim

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

Markus Schatten — 2006-06-24 07:01:01+0200

Dear group members

On Monday 10 July 2006 16:49, illegale wrote: > Running issues by example is the best way to promote it. So, if we want > to be powerfull citizens, we have to show governance how can it be > done. That is the reason I look into promotion of new mechanism of > generation of the power that can lead process before goverment in this > very time also.

Hehe, this elaboration associated me to a crazy idea. Lets form our own virtual country and try to create a TOP government by example ;-)

> Why only important? This can only put some confusion into what is > important and what is not important? So, why not all? >

Read more… / Lire plus…

+1 I think all decisions on public matter should be fully transparent.

Best regards

— Markus Schatten, dipl. inf.
e-mail: markus.schatten@foi.hr
http://www.tiaktiv.hr

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

Markus Schatten — 2006-08-19 16:42:09+0200

Dear Emmanuel

On Tuesday 11 July 2006 12:49, echarp wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 24, 2006 at 07:01:01AM +0200, Markus Schatten wrote: > > Hehe, this elaboration associated me to a crazy idea. Lets form our own > > virtual country and try to create a TOP government by example ;-) > > +1 :-) >

;-) What do the others think about this idea? TOP Union? ;-)

Read more… / Lire plus…

> > > Why only important? This can only put some confusion into what is > > > important and what is not important? So, why not all? > > > > +1 I think all decisions on public matter should be fully transparent. > > Let’s try to delineate what is public and what is not. > > I have an idea about it, practical and corresponding to what is mostly > already done => > “all government recorded information should be made public. All > democratic processes should be made so transparent that they can be > replicated in real time” > > No limit but for a time buffer which could be set at the instigation of > a group of representatives (I dislike that idea, and am still looking > for another mechanism).

Hmmm… when all professional communication (non-private) is done over a public information system than I think most of TOP principles are fulfilled. If you take todays media possibilities than everything could be easily accessable and on-line in real-time, or did I understand you wrong?

Best regards

— Markus Schatten, dipl. inf.
e-mail: markus.schatten@foi.hr
http://www.tiaktiv.hr

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

Mark Rosst — 2006-08-02 03:34:11+0200

MG wrote:

> "> "-M: OK. We all seem to want PD and speedy replacements of those in power positions. " > >mG: -A key issue!

> -M: PD or replacements? We seem to be in agreement on both, so the only issue seems to be how we communicate our opinions. "

Read more… / Lire plus…

>mG: Both! I really think that we could reach common agreement…

-M: You do have delegates – this is RD in practice. Political structures would be built around them.

Can delegates delegate to other delegates as with Parlement/EC-D?

If the depth of this delegation is unlimited, you will need a reiterative centrality algorithm like PageRank.

So far, Emmanuel has said that the way he would avoid having to use PageRank was to forbid delegates from voting for each other. How? Chronological priviliging? What about loops? Emmanuel keeps DODGING and would rather talk about the World Cup than mathematics or his constant contradictions. And why do users of his delegable proxy constraints have:

only one delegate?
a choice of delegate OR a position?

By contrast, SD2-Smartocracy offers:

a trustee or
trustees and/or
a delegate or
delegates and/or
issue choice and/or
decision thresholds

This gives maximum choice to the voter without arbitrariness. This identifies the expert opinion for each decision. This also identifies a body of generalists to act as political organizers and high administrators.

>mG:…if you only stopped the L-words…

-M: Emmanullemmings – they get in the way of participatory democracy. Now an “E”-word.

shanti
Mark, Seattle WA USA

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

Magnus — 2006-08-02 02:34:34+0200

“> "-M: OK. We all seem to want PD and speedy replacements of those in power positions. " >mG: -A key issue!

-M: PD or replacements? We seem to be in agreement on both, so the only

issue seems to be how we communicate our opinions. "

Both!
I really think that we could reach common agreement if you only stopped the L-words…

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

Mark Rosst — 2006-07-31 22:30:22+0200

MG wrote:

> ">mG: -In AD they control as much as their mandate from the voters give > them. > > -M: Which could lead to too much concentration of power. This is why I > label boards of five in SD2 as ‘normal mode’ to discourage > concentrations of power to smaller groups. "

> -You have a point here. In Ad we actually don’t give this problem so > much thought yet. But it is possible to solve by maximising the percentage of the votes for one delegate o 20% or so.

Read more… / Lire plus…

-M: There could be a vote on the percentage limit. SD2-Smartocracy makes the PageRank of the decision decisive, and there is a vote on the number of executive committee members – 1, 3, or 5, and there is no rule against these executives also being among the highest legislators – very parliamentary.

>mG: In AD case delegation also can be made to an organization which makes things a little more complicated. If this organization is a political party, things might be as today. The important difference is the instant drawback of the delegation…which stresses the best from all delegates apart from today. And the fact that a delegation can be only for socfic issues, such as energy or environment, or for all issues for a certain time. In this way AD wan’t[wants] to give the citizens all possible levels of DD down to pure RD.

-M: By contrast SD2-Smartocracy is always extreme RD, because DD discourages PD by spreading peoples’ power to thinly. With SD2-S, particants are rewarded with rank – this rewards efforts with decisiveness.

> "-M: OK. We all seem to want PD and speedy replacements of those in power positions. "

>mG: -A key issue!

-M: PD or replacements? We seem to be in agreement on both, so the only issue seems to be how we communicate our opinions.

shanti
Mark, Seattle WA USA

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

Magnus — 2006-07-31 04:12:32+0200

“>mG: -In AD they control as much as their mandate from the voters give them.

-M: Which could lead to too much concentration of power. This is why I label boards of five in SD2 as ‘normal mode’ to discourage concentrations of power to smaller groups. "

-You have a point here. In Ad we actually don’t give this problem so much thought yet.
But it is possible to solve by maximising the percentage of the votes for one delegate o 20% or so. In AD case delegation also can be made to an organization which makes things a little more complicated. If this organization is a political party, things might be as today. The important difference is the instant drawback of the delegation…which stresses the best from all delegates apart from today.
And the fact that a delegation can be only for socfic issues, such as energy or environment, or for all issues for a certain time. In this way AD wan’t to give the citizens all possible levels of DD down to pure RD.

“-M: OK. We all seem to want PD and speedy replacements of those in power positions. "

-A key issue!

[top-politics] TOP meaning? Input field for SD2-Smartocracy.

Mark Rosst — 2006-07-29 00:11:54+0200

echarp wrote: […] > > In AD they control as much as their mandate from the voters give them. > > But they can be replaced or sacked in one day by an individual citizen.

>ec: No need for any delay, their power change just as voters set or remove their delegations :)

-M: Maybe that is what Karl meant. This is also how SD2-Smartocracy works.

Read more… / Lire plus…

> > > To me what is important is that citizen can directly participate. > > > Yet is it practical to consider that everybody should participate > > > directly on everything? Particularly if there is no limit on the > > > quantity of things managed democratically? "

> > AD has means to both minimize the numbers of issues to read (the > > continous vote) and if still too many, to delegate one or all > > issues/areas for now until further change or for a specific time > > period.

>ec: There can be a HUGE number of active issues at any one time. Consider that all our current laws are each an issue onto which a citizen can vote! And that amount can increase by factors of 10, 100, 10^10, no limit!!! All laws, rules, nominations, communications, news, local and international, could be issues. All active and available for vote and discussions. The delegation you are speaking about, is of what kind?

-M: (You are asking Karl this question, but I will pretend that you are inquiring into SD2-Smartocracy.)

I imagine that an issue gets voted on when the following conditions are met:

It has the largest number of current votes(compared with competing issues).
It meets the required voting volume(example: 20% of qualified voters)
votes are distributed toward decisive positions(not ‘neutral’ or ‘deliberate’)

So my input field could be like this: ——————————————————————————————————————

Name ___________________________]

Manditory representitives: [(default), (default)]

Optional additional representitives: _______________________] ____________________________________________________]

Issue X Y Z
Vote:
Yes [ ] No [ ] Deliberate [ ]

Optional delegate(s) (will default to representitives if none are selected): ________________________________________]

Decision threshold ⁶⁰%… (range 50%+1 – 70%, default 60%)

…of a required ²⁰%5 of qualified voters (range (0% – 40%)5, default 20%+5)

—————————————————————————

[top-politics] Re: What does TOP mean to you? #02

echarp — 2006-07-28 22:12:12+0200

On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 05:46:15PM -0700, MG wrote:

> > Just consider that the representatives are an intermediary step at > > the level of voters. > > > > They don’t have to have any sort of special status, but for the fact > > that they represent more than their own voice. > > They have a very special status! > They are the ones to put forward the proposals in a RD.

Where does it say that?

> So when they decide on strategy to get their hiden agendas fulfilled, > thay have to be wired actually if we’r talking TOP-principles.

Read more… / Lire plus…

Do you want to wire all voters? What if they discuss and influence each others? What of a voter’s party or syndicate?

> > In my opinion delegates are somehow representatives yes, yet they > > don’t control that many/much things. > > In AD they control as much as their mandate from the voters give them. > But they can be replaced or sacked in one day by an individual citizen.

No need for any delay, their power change just as voters set or remove their delegations :)

> > To me what is important is that citizen can directly participate. > > Yet is it practical to consider that everybody should participate > > directly on everything? Particularly if there is no limit on the > > quantity of things managed democratically? " > > AD has means to both minimize the numbers of issues to read (the > continous vote) and if still too many, to delegate one or all > issues/areas for now until further change or for a specific time > period.

There can be a HUGE number of active issues at any one time. Consider that all our current laws are each an issue onto which a citizen can vote!

And that amount can increase by factors of 10, 100, 10^10, no limit!!! All laws, rules, nominations, communications, news, local and international, could be issues. All active and available for vote and discussions.

The delegation you are speaking about, is of what kind?

echarp – http://leparlement.org